Conversion Optimization Without the Dark Patterns

In this episode of the Smashing Podcast, host Drew McLellan sits down with Paul Boag, a conversion optimization specialist, to explore the fine line between persuasive design and manipulative selling. The core question: can aggressive conversion tactics damage trust, and how do we avoid making customers feel cheated?

Why Traditional Conversion Tactics Backfire

Boag argues that many common conversion optimization techniques are fundamentally flawed because they treat users as targets to be tricked rather than people to be served. Tactics like fake urgency, opaque countdown timers, and hidden costs might boost short-term metrics, but they erode the very trust that sustains long-term customer relationships. When users realize they've been manipulated, the backlash can be severe — not just in lost sales, but in damaged brand reputation.

The alternative, Boag suggests, is to reframe conversion as an extension of good user experience. Rather than asking "how do we get more clicks?", the better question is "how do we remove friction and communicate value honestly?" A user who converts because they genuinely understand the product and trust the source is worth far more than one who converts out of confusion or pressure.

Practical Honest Conversion Techniques

Boag's approach centers on clarity and empathy. Instead of exploiting psychological vulnerabilities, he recommends straightforward improvements that do not rely on trickery:

  • Eliminate ambiguity. Be explicit about pricing, shipping costs, and delivery times upfront — even when the numbers are not flattering.
  • Reduce anxiety. Display guarantees and return policies prominently. Boag notes that many users abandon checkouts because of worry, not laziness.
  • Match tone to intent. A visitor reading a technical review is in a different mindset from one browsing photos; both need a clear path forward that respects their context.
  • Test with real users. A/B testing is only valuable when measured against metrics like return visits and satisfaction, not just conversion rate.

Boag offers a litmus test: if you would be uncomfortable using the same tactic on a friend or colleague, it is not a technique worth shipping.

When Selling Feels Like a Betrayal

Boag draws a hard line between persuasive communication and deception. Persuasion, done ethically, involves understanding user motivations and helping them make an informed decision. Deception, in contrast, involves hiding information or distorting it. The specific "shady tricks" he warns against include:

  • Creating false scarcity (e.g., claiming low stock when inventory is ample).
  • Pre-checking opt-in boxes for upselling.
  • Using confusing cancellation flows.
  • Marketing products as "free" when they require a credit card to access.

Such tactics not only violate user expectations — they often run contrary to the actual business benefit. Boag notes that a customer convinced to buy through trickery is statistically more likely to return the product or initiate a chargeback, leaving the seller with processing fees and a poisoned relationship.

Notes and Recommendations

From the Smashing Community

Why “Honest” Conversion Rate Optimization Beats Dark Patterns

Paul Boag admits his webinar with Drew McLellan is aptly timed. He has spent 18 years working from home, so pandemic-era social distancing changed little for him — though the sudden surge of community WhatsApp groups made things, he jokes, “dreadfully” sociable. What actually brought the two together is his new book, Click: How to Encourage Clicks Without Shady Tricks, published by Smashing Magazine in spring 2020.

It was not his first choice of title. Boag wanted to call it Encouraging Clicks Without Being A… — until Vitaly, Smashing’s founder, vetoed the lack of professionalism. Joking about titles aside, the book tackles a real problem: the mounting pressure on designers, marketers, and site owners to hit an ever-increasing conversion-rate target. Early websites had plenty of “low-hanging fruit,” so improvements came easily. Once those gains evaporated, expectations did not. Management kept demanding annual growth, and turning to dark patterns became the tempting fallback.

Boag’s argument is not ethical but rather long-term business strategy. Users might be susceptible on a subconscious level, but they are aware of being manipulated. Usability tests on hotel booking sites show this clearly: testers are vocal about hating manipulative tactics, then still get influenced by them. The hidden cost surfaces as sky-high return rates, support tickets, negative reviews, and a cohort of customers suffering from buyer’s remorse. Conversion without lingering regret — getting someone happily to the point of decision — is what Boag says real optimization is about.

Measure the Whole Journey, Not Just Transactions

Conventional wisdom says to track conversion rate, but Boag suggests shifting to a broader portfolio of metrics:

  • Lifetime value — how much a customer is worth over their entire relationship, rather than merely this purchase.
  • Average order value — to complement how many orders are being made.
  • Engagement — do people watch videos, read content, engage on social media before converting?
  • Usability — how fast can a user complete a core task?

Standardized tools exist to make this manageable, including the well-known System Usability Scale for perceived usability and the prototyping and testing platform maze.design for tracking task completion. A narrow focus on just one metric, though, creates skew and invites optimization of a distorted objective, often with poor results.

He recounts an example from a project management software company. Marketing was rewarded for generating leads, so they gated a product demo behind a registration form. That produced a flood of new emails — but also an avalanche of low-quality leads. Sales teams wasted time calling early-curious users and filtering out bogus sign-ups like “Donald Duck@Disney.” The internal mess and plummeting sales conversion rates illustrate clearly how a poorly-aligned, single-minded metric misguides optimization decisions. Boag’s emphasis is on balance: conversion rate must only ever be one row in the measurement table.

The ‘Cognitive Load ’ of Simplicity and Consistency

Taking pains to understand the actual human performing the click is crucial. While it is tempting to rely on analytics, dashboards, and sophisticated survey tools, Boag rests on an even more effective conversion insight — interviews. Speaking with real users should come prepared with context — wherever they are — so that you see complexity first-hand: the physical world is full of cats, aging tower computers, distracting screens, and ten-minute boot-up times.

Putting yourself in the user’s head, the theory goes, exposes “cognitive load.” To that end, he reminds us of the dual-process thinking from the book Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow — the intuitive “system one” versus deliberate “system two.” When presented in complex UI or new patterns, system two needs more energy, and fatigue creeps in. The experience quickly turns distrustful and unpleasant, inevitably undermining conversion.

Keeping cognitive load low is what separates friction-free from convoluted. Actions that lower the load include:

  • Simplification — remove any element that is not critical.
  • Consistency, both internal and external — for instance, respecting common expectations: most users look to the top right-hand corner for a search input box. Deviating from a learned “procedure” burdens the search.
  • Using agreeable design queues — bright and clear helpers lighten mood, which lowers cognitive load.
  • Setting expectations — priming users about why a step happens and why it matters.

The stakes of overcomplicating the routine of a standard task remain invisible in sleek office mockups but are transformative, hard-to-accept realities users step into with tired, distracted mindsets.

Trust, Humanity, and Culture

As “anyone can build a website,” establishing trust makes the difference between a prospective customer and a likely bounce. Humanity, Boag warns, should re-place broad industry autonomy bias that reduces exchanges to dead icons and scripts.

Writing in first person (using “we” and “you” rather than a detached third-person voice) instantly directs a personal line from the owner to the customer. Credibility itself has moved on: stamped logos and slick polished testimonials can now backfire without solid social proof behind them.

Boag points out how technical products crack this open — citing the Twitter-pulled testimonials Perch used to run. Users could click through and discover a real human behind a real profile. Sincerity, the designer argues, is equally communicated when warts are on view: less perfect, smaller production videos ultimately sounded more trustworthy than scripted marketing. And at the deepest level, publishing salary breakdowns, monthly revenues, and staff demographic stats — as a company like Buffer does — pushes integrity and transparency to the door. Exposing honest business data substitutes market fear with candid confidence in a way polished ad copy cannot.

Earn Clicks One Step at a Time, and Test Indefinitely

Conversion “does not happen in one moment,” reiterates Boag. Success does not live in the click of the “buy” button — it sits along a fine loop of micro-interactions:

  1. A social media update leads to a blog post visit.
  2. That visit earns an engaging reading session.
  3. That session nets an email signup, a monthly donation, and even a legacy decision five yers later.

It would be a working philosophy: stage, pace, remove friction, treat customer relationship as an ongoing story rather than mere landing-point clicks.

Post-launch likewise is by no means “done.” Beginners should run the whole funnel again:

Identify problem pages by drop-off rates in analytics; then identify culprit components with session recorders (e.g., Hotjar) or remote usertesting.com sessions. Only then formulate the solution —
if straightforward (imagery shifts or button recolors), run a controlled A/B test using something like Google Optimize, and push the winning variant. Substantial changes warrant prototype or mockup testing ahead of deployment. Two concrete, low-cost testing tools work admirably for these prototypes: first click tests (checking where users instinctively click) and five-second tests (showing an unbalanced key version shot, then fading it out and collecting memory). Rapid iterations creep via one funnel page at a time — forever.
Though some metrics simply rise and fall quarterly, such agile “test-implement-improve repeat” exercises will always offer solid footholds early wins, prompting clients into long-term commitment.

Start Converting Clients with Simple Reinvention

Boag suggests freelancers begin easy, regular stepping-stone refinements with clients to embed that elusive optimization culture faster: